Wipeout (and Wipeout 2097) was a vision of future racing influenced by Formula 1 as well as Super Mario Kart and F-Zero. It was the idea of a Formula 1 handling model taken to extremes that brought in its exaggerated grip and instant turning. With that proving such a success, it made sense for Sony to buy up the licence to the real thing and give it to Psygnosis to do what they could with. Rather than take it on themselves and try to develop it alongside Wipeout 2097, Psygnosis gave it out to Bizarre Creations to take in a different direction with a different game engine. That’s a bit of a missed opportunity, and I would love to experience a Formula 1 game in more of a Wipeout style, with music to match as opposed to Formula 1’s Steve Vai. Still, in at least one bit of audio, Bizarre did do something brilliant.
Formula 1, like Grand Prix 2, was based on a season already gone at the time of its release, but it represents 1995 so doesn’t have to deal with the cursed nature of 1994. It does an impressive job of including all thirty-six drivers to have competed in the championship at various points, replicating their various swaps as you play through a season, thus avoiding even less significant absences than Grand Prix 2’s.
It has more details in its graphics of the tracks than Grand Prix 2 as well, though Formula 1’s jagged polygons mean the effect leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to Grand Prix 2’s elegance. There is more to feeling real than including every detail, and that extends to the driving experience. Formula 1 feels most at home in the brash arcade mode the quickrace mode starts you off in, ludicrously faster than anyone else and with the car doing most of the driving, than it does as it moves towards more realistic ways of playing. What it brings in from another direction is closer alignment to television still than the Grand Prix series. All of its information is conveyed in the still-familiar black writing in yellow squares of official coverage, and for British players it has a bigger TV treat. The audio brilliance is in its commentary from Murray Walker.
Murray Walker retired from full time commentary in 2001 at the age of 77 and at this point I must have watched more Formula 1 races without Murray Walker commentary than I ever did races with him there. At some level, though, they still don’t sound entirely complete without him. Voted the greatest sports commentator ever by the British public at least once, he occupied a space of his own as a highlight of watching. The elder statesman still maintaining an infectious enthusiasm, never hesitant to jump in even if the facts weren’t yet entirely clear, he was a man for whom an exclamation mark was a default state to be built upon.
Walker clearly recorded a great deal of material for Formula 1. He introduces each grand prix, and if you do a qualifying session he will comment on each gear change as you get up to speed, with a couple of different possible phrasings for each one. In the heat of the race, though, and with the bumper car approach that the game lends itself to, he begins to repeat very quickly. I lost count of how many times I heard him exclaim “Oh no!” as I rammed my way through the field. Sometimes he is reduced even further to gawking, giving an absolutely perfect rendition of “Look at that! Look! At! That!!” The spirit of his commentary is gloriously captured and turned into a recurring sound effect. The real Murray Walker never got quite this gonzo. Formula 1 is transformed into not just an imitation version of TV but, within a limited and hilarious scope, a superior alternative. The announcer in Ridge Racer could never.
